The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 26, 2004, Page 10, Image 10
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10 Game.Schedule
MEN’S BASKETBALL at Vanderbilt, 8 p.m. Wednesday
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL at College of Charleston, 7 p.m. Wednesday
p x x — WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. Davidson, 6 p.m. Wednesday
L-OmaCl. MEN’S & WOMEN’S SWIMMING vs. Alabama, 4 p.m. Friday
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Tough defense helps USC beat Tigers
BY JONATHAN HILLYARO
THE GAMECOCK
The USC men’s basketball
team (17-2,4-1 SEC) continued its
hot streak in a 61-55 nail-biter
against the LSU Tigers (12-4,2-3)
Saturday night. Despite being
down by three points with less
than four minutes to play, the
Gamecocks once again found a
way to win.
“Everybody feels that some
how, someway, we’re going to get
it done,” said senior point guard
Mike Boynton, “pur slogan for
the last few weeks has been, ‘Find
a way,’ and if we aren’t shooting
well, then we have to find another
way to win.”
Not shooting well would be an
outrageous understatement for
the Gamecocks on Saturday.
Despite ending up at a modest 38.2
percent from the field, Carolina
was a horrific l-for-23 from be
hind the 3-point line. The shoot
ing did not affect the defense,
however, as USC forced 23 LSU
turnovers, recorded 14 steals and
held LSU to 39 percent from the
field. Carolina would score 25
points off LSU turnovers.
The Gamecocks improved to 4
1 in the conference and continued
their second-best conference start
in school history. The victory was
the fourth win in the last five tries
against the Tigers. Carolina also
improved its record in the
Colonial Center to 22-5 in front of
yet another record crowd of
17,927.
“As hard as our team played,
our fans were at their very best,”
USC head coach Dave Odom said.
“I talked to a guy who has worked
here 29 years, and he said he’s
never heard our crowd at the old
building and certainly not in this
one like it was tonight. It was a
wonderful night for Gamecocks
everywhere.”
USC got a heavy dose of pre
season All-SEC forward Jaime
Lloreda, who was LSU’s offense
with 19 points and 16 rebounds.
For the Gamecocks, despite poor
shooting, four players finished in
double figures. USC forwards
Rolando Howell and Renaldo
Balkman scored 12 and 11 points,
respectively, while guard Josh
Gonner added a very quiet 10
points. The night was highlight
ed by the play and passion of ju
nior forward Carlos Powell, who
scored 12 points off of 5-of-12 from
the field, one of which was
Carolina’s only 3-pointer of the
night. He also recorded four steals
in what was a game-saving defen
sive performance by the USC de
fense. Powell’s 12 points contin
ues his streak of having scored in
double figures in every game this
season, and he has now scored in
55 straight games.
“Carlos has really worked hard
and defined himself as a high-lev
el player,” Odom said. “He was
the best of the best tonight.”
The Gamecocks had a solid
first half of play and held a 10
point advantage midway through
’ the first half. USC maintained the
lead witkgood defense, forcing 13
first half turnovers on nine steals
while only turning the ball over
four times. The momentum
would take a 180-degree turn at
the end of the half, however, as
LSU mounted a 7-0 run to go into
the half only trailing Carolina by
three. They would continue the
run in the second half, outscoring
the Gamecocks 8-2 in the opening
minutes of the second half and
building a quick lead. But in a re
curring theme, the momentum
would shift back to the
Gamecocks as they went on a 10-2
run to regain the lead. The lead
ership of Powell would then pre
vail as he finally broke the spell,
hitting USC’s first three-pointer
with 1:35 to go. Gonner would
steal the inbound pass and score
to put the crowd in chaos and give
Carolina the lead for good.
USC will now take its four
game SEC winning streak to
Nashville, Tenn., to take on the
Vanderbilt Commodores (13-3,2
3). Vanderbilt is coming off a loss
on the road to Arkansas but
hasn’t lost in its last 11 games at
Memorial Gym in Nashville. Tip
off is scheduled for Wednesday at
8 p.m.
PHOTO BY DAVID STAGG/THE GAMECOCK
Carlos Powell drives past an LSU player in Carolina’s victory over the Tigers on Saturday night.
Powell had 12 points, four steals and hit the only 3-pointer of the game for USC.
BY JOEL WALLACE
THE GAMECOCK
After wrapping Columbia in his
icy grip, Old Man Winter’s work
wasn’t complete until he blew into
the Colonial Center around half
time to ice the hot-shooting USC
women’s basketball team (8-9,0-5
SEC), which lost to the Kentucky
Wildcats 75-61 Sunday afternoon.
After going 7-of-ll on 3-pointers
in the first half, the Gamecocks
found themselves up 38-29 head
ing into the locker room against
the Wildcats. When the teams took
the floor for the second half, it was
an entirely different story.
Kentucky made its next four 3
point attempts, while USC shot
only 2-of-ll from beyond the arc in
the second half.
“We struggled at the beginning
of the second half,” USC head
coach Susan Walvius said. “You
win games in the first five minutes
of that half. It is the most critical
time of the game, and we didn’t
come out with enough intensity.
We need more fight and focus from
our upper-class players. They
need to show us direction and how
to focus.”
The Wildcats evened their
overall record to 9-9 while pick
ing up their first SEC win under
first-year head coach Mickie
DeMoss.
“It is great to get our first SEC
win,” DeMoss said. “We attacked
their zones in the second half, and
that really got us going. I’m proud
of this team.”
All five of the Wildcats’ starters
posted double-figures in scoring,
with Danyelle Payne leading the
way with 18 points.
“They came at us in the transi
tion game at the beginning of the
second half,” Walvius said. “We
would make a mistake and drop
our heads, and they would just
beat us down the floor. They were
very aggressive.”
Freshman guard Lauren
Simms led the Gamecocks with 18
points, going 7-20 from the field
while picking up three steals.
Guard Kelly Morrone also had an
impressive performance Sunday,
scoring 14 points while shooting
4-5 from 3-point range.
“Confidence is the most impor
tant thing to turning a losing
streak around,” Morrone said.
“There is a lot of basketball left,
so we still have time to get the job
done.”
Walvius reflected her players’
optimism, reaffirming her faith in
their ability to get back on track
and break the Gamecocks’ eight
game losing streak.
“I believe in this team,”
Walvius said. “We just need to
work harder on defense. If I am
♦ BASKETBALL, SEE PAGE 11
PHOTO BY \IARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK
Guard Cristina Ciocan pushes the ball up the court. Ciocan
scored seven points In the loss to Kentucky on Sunday.
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
USC student-athletes re-roof a house in Columbia last semester
as a part of the Team Gamecocks community service program.
Athletics department awarded
for Team Gamecocks program
BY WES WOLFE
THE GAMECOCK
The USC Athletics
Department was awarded the
Helping Hands and Hearts
Award by Home Works of South
Carolina last week for its work
to build and repair homes for
people in financial need.
The award was given “to rec
ognize the tireless efforts pro
vided blitz after blitz to not only
make repairs to homes of the el
derly but to more importantly
convey hope,” Hank Chardos, di
rector of Home Works, said. “The
student-athletes have set a stan
dard, an ethic of hard work and
service to those in need in the
community.”
The award was presented on
Jan. 18 to USC Athletics Director
Mike McGee and CHAMPS/Life
Skills coordinator Collin Crick
at the Home Works Board of
Directors meeting.
“We’ve worked with Hank
Chardos for four semesters now
with Home Works to repair
homes around the community,”
Crick said.
Team Gamecocks, the athlet
ics department’s community ser
vice program and a part of the
CHAMPS/Life Skills program, is
comprised primarily of Carolina
student-athletes who are in
volved in projects like re-roofing
homes for homeowners in need,
which they did on the Home
Works Day of Service in October.
According to uscsports.com,
Team Gamecocks has also par
ticipated in collecting food for the
Harvest Hope Food Bank, visit
ing veterans and children in hos
pitals and working with various
after-school programs.
The CHAMPS program was
designed by the NCAA to help the
lives of student-athletes in col
lege. CHAMPS, Challenging
Athletes’ Minds for Personal
Success, covers five main ar eas
♦ AWARD, SEE PAGE 11
Fans can
make the
difference
BY BEN SINCLAIR y
THE GAMECOCK
For the first time since USC was
the 2001 NIT runner-up, Gamecock
basketball fans have a reason to
support their team. The team is off
to a mind-boggling 17-2 start, and
all is well in Gamecock country.
The bad news is that this team
is not a lock for
the NCAA
Tournament.
The good news
is that filling up
the Colonial
Center can be a
large part of the
reason Carolina
gets in or not. BEN SINCLAIR
While 17-2 Fourth year
looks good on print
any resume, journalism
there are still stU(tent
games left to play. The Gamecocks
need to at least split the next two
games at Ole Miss and the once
ranked Vanderbilt. If there is any
knock on this team, it is that it has
trouble winning on the road.
Winning the 2003 Guardians
Classic and beating Auburn in
overtime will not silence all the
critics. Unfortunately, some of
those critics select at-large bids for
the NCAA Tournament.
The Gamecocks sit at 59th in
the latest RPI rating, college bas
ketball’s version of the BCS. This
is in large part because of a sched
ule some experts claim could be
the worst in the country.
However, as Richmond beat
Kansas on Kansas’s home court,
Georgia defeated Kentucky and
Georgia Tech, and N.C. State de
feated Georgia Tech and Virginia,
the computer is starting to see that
this South Carolina team is better
than many originally thought.
On ESPN.com, basketball ex
pert Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology
page currently lists South
Carolina as a No. 9 seed.
Assuming this projection is cor
rect, there are only about 10 teams
between USC making the tourna
ment and not making it.
Translation: One bad week, and
this team is on the outside looking
in.
This is where the fans come in. .
Gamecock fans have certainly I
done their part the last two home
games by breaking Colonial
Center attendance records in
home game victories against
Tennessee and LSU. This young
and energetic team feeds off the
crowd. They seem to elevate their
game as the crowd gets louder.
This team has looked impressive
in games against Tennessee and
N.C. State and lackluster in poorly
attended games like Yale and
Gardner-Webb.
i eApeuL me game against
Kentucky will set a new atten
dance record, but the team could
use over 17,000 from here on out.
While it sounds too early to be
talking about the NCAA ft
Tournament, there are just five *
basketball home games left.
Mississippi State, Kentucky and
Vanderbilt remain, and they have
all been ranked this season.
Games against Georgia and
Alabama may not be as attractive,
but they may be crucial in deter
mining where this team finishes
in the conference.
Great fan support may not only
provide the basketball team a
boost on the court, but it may help
on Selection Sunday as well.
The NCAA Tournament is a
business out to make as much
money as possible. College foot
ball teams with large fan support
get boosted to bowls they have no
business being in. Likewise, teams
with poor fan support usually get
left out in the cold in smaller bowl
games.
If one agrees this happens in col
lege football, certainly it must oc
cur to some extent in college bas
ketball as well. USC has not been
known nationally as a basketball
school since the glory days under
Frank McGuire in the 1970s. Based
on the RPI and Bracketology rank
ings, one can easily determine that
there are not a lot of Gamecocks
outside of Columbia. However,
breaking attendance records the
last two games proves that excite
ment exist*?, and Gamecock fans
♦ SINCLAIR, SEE PAGE 11 _